


Again

by Ericine



Series: Lush [4]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: (sort of), Advent Calendar 2017, Cuddling & Snuggling, Empathy, Exhaustion, F/M, Family, Femslash, Gossip, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Porn with Feelings, Secret Relationship, Sleep, Sleepy Cuddles, Sleepy Sex, Threesome - F/F/M, honestly how does anyone on senior staff have time for a relationship on the Enterprise, weird stuff is always happening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 16:11:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12891672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ericine/pseuds/Ericine
Summary: “I mean, when’s the last time you two were alone together?”He looks at Deanna. Deanna looks at him.“I guess it’s been a while,” he says.





	Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leyenn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leyenn/gifts).



> Okay! This takes place after Through Different Light and in-between Worf leaving the Enterprise to help in the Klingon Civil War and Sela showing up and complicating things. (I know, it's a two-parter episode, but you know that people have to sleep sometime. These people are taking what they can get.)
> 
> For Leyenn, who's making me my own Advent Calendar for mostly this universe (no guarantees, but most things will be set here haha).

Their honeymoon period, as Beverly likes to call it, lasts approximately two weeks, and they’re a blurry two weeks for everyone. There’s plenty to deal with between everyday ship operations, Geordi’s therapy, and an escalating Klingon conflict that involves Worf on the surface but in reality involves all of them. Add to that the fact that Beverly, Will, and Deanna find it  _ extremely hard _ to keep their hands off each other, and no one’s really getting any sleep.

The list of people who know is limited for now. Geordi knows and runs interception for Data (it helps that Data’s never fully figured out where Deanna and Will stand with each other, and thinks that whatever’s going on now is another complicated and intriguing facet of their relationship). Miles and Keiko know, which makes for great double dates (always somewhere private like a holodeck or the arboretum, Keiko’s turf, where nothing escapes her). Selar and Alyssa drop by for those sometimes but not so often - it’s not necessarily Selar’s style, and besides, the two of them have fallen into domesticity so fast that the most common gathering between the three groups is a group dinner in Selar’s quarters. (The woman is quite the cook.)

That leaves Ensign Georgiou, probably the weakest link, as she’s promised to keep what she knows quiet as long as she can be the first one to spread the news once it comes out. In other words, her secrecy depends on everyone else keeping their mouths shut. Completely shut. On the starship  _ Enterprise _ .

And yet? It’s honestly the least of their worries.

They’re in Beverly’s quarters today because she’s expecting a call from Wesley in the morning. Normally, Deanna sleeps in the middle here because it’s a little cold for her (and a serial blanket hog, so it’s easier for Will and Beverly to keep a handle on the covers when she’s here), but Will’s in the middle instead. Beverly’s a light sleeper, and her eyes flutter open when he climbs back into his spot.

“You okay?” she asks. When she’s less than aware of her surroundings, she defaults toward concern.

“Had to pee,” he murmurs, voice rough but amused. He slides his arms around Beverly and turns her around so she can lean into the nook between his head and his shoulder.

“”Mm,” Beverly hums softly. They’re all naked, and she loves the feel of his skin - their skin - against hers. She crosses her arms over herself so she can grasp his upper arms. “What time—“

“Oh-three-hundred, about,” he says, softly, into her ear, and Beverly can’t help it—she shivers and grinds her ass into his crotch.

“How long—“

“Three hours.”

“That’s not even a complete sleep cycle,” Beverly whispers, but her voice is going up into a moan at the end, because his fingers are settling over her clit, and she’s spreading her legs because she’s exhausted but she knows what he can do with his hands half-awake, and he knows how far she can arch her back without needing to shift.. His hand stills for a moment, and Beverly smiles, feeling tender, turning around to find his mouth. “Oh, Will, no. I want this.”

The bed shifts; there’s a warm hand over her breast; small, fine fingers that cup over her nipple, gentle, but she shivers because Deanna’s thumb’s stopped right over her breast.

“May I cut in?” Deanna asks, sleepy, aroused.

Beverly sighs at that, lifts her hand to press a kiss to the knuckles, grinds against Will again, his cock stiffening against her back. “Please,” she says, eyes closed, sliding against all of the skin against hers.

“Please,” repeats Will, turning over. In the dark, Beverly can hear his and Deanna’s kiss, open and wet. “She says ‘please,’ Imzadi.”

There’s a gasp there, and there’s not a doubt in Beverly’s mind that Deanna knows how turned on he is, but sometimes there’s something to feeling an erection between your legs when you’ve just woken up - the soft but hard pressure between your thighs.

“She’s insatiable,” Deanna says, and Beverly pulls herself flush against Will’s back, grips his ass with her hand, slings a thigh over his.

Beverly laughs breathlessly. “I’m sore.” She’s checked. Friction and night after night of hips slamming into her have made it nearly hard to sit. Part of her likes it. Part of her knows that she’s going to be in trouble if she needs to take a bumpy shuttle ride anytime in the next few days.

Deanna makes a sympathetic noise, and they’re shifting again, until Deanna’s between her knees and Will’s—somewhere else, not at her side. “Ithái, you could have said that it hurts so much,” she murmurs, leaning over her.

Beverly’s breath catches in her throat—she’s still not used to being called that term of endearment, the magnitude of it. For a moment, she just wants to pull Deanna on top of her, into her arms, touch as much of her as she can.

Deanna lowers her head to her breast, flicks her tongue, and all Beverly can think about is need—a need for touch, a need to satisfy their needs.

“Don’t worry about her,” Will chuckles. “She’s not taken nearly as much as you have.”

It’s true, Beverly realises, stretching her neck up to look at the stars outside her window, even as she runs her fingers over Deanna’s hair. She’s had Will inside her nearly every night. Deanna, not so much. “I didn’t realise,” she murmurs.

Deanna kisses the underside of her breast and trails her fingers up Beverly’s thighs, sliding over her clit. “You’re still wet from before bed.” And then she moans.

“Speak for yourself,” Will says roughly, and Deanna sighs in pleasure.

“Don’t be sorry, Ithái. You’re just such a physical person. We can’t resist being inside you. If anything, this is our fault.”

She’s throbbing between her legs, and nothing is enough. “ _Deanna_ ,” she whispers.

She can feel Will now in the shift of the bed by her feet, kneeling behind Deanna. Deanna pulls herself up to Beverly’s mouth and kisses her, moaning into her mouth, and Beverly bucks against Deanna’s fingers, because no one’s thought to turn up the lights, but she has an idea of what he’s doing to her from behind.

“He can take me,” Deanna tells her. “I want to take you where it doesn’t hurt.” She reaches up, runs wet fingers over Beverly’s nipple, and Beverly gasps.

“Okay,” Beverly breathes. “Yes, okay.”

And then Deanna’s mouth is between her thighs, and she’s biting her lip to keep from crying out. Then she remembers where she is and who she's with, and she cries out anyway.  


It’s not completely painless, of course - she can feel each of Will’s thrusts, just a little, bumping into where she’s sore. But Deanna’s so soft and gentle, and even now, she knows Beverly’s body so well. Beverly leans into her mouth. They’re still a little tired, with the need for comfort that comes with being a few minutes away from sleep, and for a while, that’s all they hear - their slow and easy rhythm, quiet grunts and gasps.

Beverly finds Deanna’s hand and squeezes. When she comes, they come, a slow but hard chain reaction that ends with Deanna lying on Beverly’s chest and Will snuggled into them from the side. They’ll drift off to sleep again soon - they always do - but an orgasm gives them a few minutes of clarity.

“Was that alright?” Will asks Beverly, twirling a little of her hair between his fingers. She can feel his and Deanna’s hands intertwined on her side.

Beverly smiles. She feels light, like she might float off into the air any moment now. “Everything’s alright with you two.”

“Will’s sore too,” says Deanna, half-laugh, half-tired sigh. Will makes a sound of agreement.

“Maybe we’ve all tired each other out,” Will chuckles.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” says Deanna. She kisses Beverly on the cheek.

If she bends her hand up just right, she can grasp their hands where they’re clasped. “Have you two always been like this?” Beverly asks.

They shift their hands to make room for hers. “Like what?” Will asks.

“I don’t know. This affectionate. This comfortable. This--”

“Horny?” Will offers. Deanna giggles, short and soft.

There’s a blush in her somewhere, but she can’t seem to find it in herself to be embarrassed right now, in the dark, with both of her lovers so close. “Yes?”

“We’re not so different than any other relationship. Sometimes you are, sometimes you're not,” Deanna tells her.

Beverly giggles. “You both are absolutely unique. Try again.”

“We’re not,” Deanna says, pressing a kiss to Beverly’s jaw.

“It varies,” says Will. “We’ve known each other for a long time. But you’re also giving yourself too little credit. There are three people in this bed. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but all three of us were having sex just now.”

Somehow, she finds his mouth in the dark to kiss him. Deanna whimpers.

“Don’t get us started,” she whispers, but it’s affectionate.

“Please,” Beverly tells them. “I don’t think I could move if I tried.”

Also, her interest is getting the best of her. She’s always had questions about these two, and though she’s gathered plenty from her own observations (and from gossip swapped all over the ship) and from what Deanna’s told her, she knows that she doesn’t know the whole story. Not that it’s fully her business. But it doesn’t hurt to try, right?

“Out with it,” Deanna laughs. “Your curiosity is kind of--” She pauses trailing off in a way that Beverly’s slowly coming to recognize as her searching for the correct Standard word.

Sometimes, if he’s around, Will finishes her sentences for her, and that’s what happens now.

“--itchy?” Will finishes.

Deanna pauses, then nods against Beverly’s chest. “I suppose--yes, like that.”

“I just--we’ve all kind of-- _ noticed _ , you know? You two? On the ship? With each other? And it’s not like you need to be defined, but--have you always been together-together? Like, what was it like when you came on the ship? Is that asking too much?”

“Not at all,” Will tells her. “We don’t want to keep anything from you.”

“It was surprising at first,” says Deanna. “And then--”

“And then we were together,” says Will. “Not always together-together, but together.”

“One together,” Deanna clarifies. They share a laugh.

“And before--us?” She likes how she doesn’t always have to explain herself fully to them. A lot of times, they can all just pick up where each other leaves off. It’s one of the benefits to dating people who are more than friends and more than shipmates. They’ve worked together for so long, so closely.

Deanna hums. “Together-together for a while,” Will answers. “And then--”

“--the Borg attack happened,” Deanna says gently. “It just wasn’t the right time. Our responsibilities were shifting. We didn’t hesitate.”

Beverly’s calculating time in her head. “So, when both of you went to Betazed--”

“--that was probably the last time we’d given this some thought. Some serious thought, anyway. Serious, uh, conscious thought,” Will finishes.

“Until now?” She’s answered with two sounds of affirmation. Beverly swallows. “I had no idea.”

“The gratitude extends in all directions,” Deanna tells her. Beverly’s barely aware of her shifting sideways just a little, and then they’re all slipping off into sleep.

* * *

That they’re all fatigued is probably an understatement, but maybe it’s the extra energy that comes with a new relationship, or the invigoration that comes with good sex. Will’s sure that the sleep debt’s going to come for him at some point, but he wakes up at the same time he has for the past two weeks - well on time, maybe even a little early. He feels a little physically taxed, but his mind is sharp.

Deanna’s still asleep across from him, and he can hear Beverly and Wesley’s voices from the next room. Under normal circumstances, he’d drop in and say hello. He has plenty of affection for the young man, but Wesley also doesn’t know about them yet. Instead, he reaches over and pushes a stray strand of hair back across Deanna’s face. She’s always looked so at peace when sleeping, and he’s a little envious of how she can be in the deepest of sleeps until needed. Then, she’s up and alert as the rest of them.

Deanna’s eyes flutter open, and she smiles like a moon - something luminous and beautiful.

(Asleep until needed or until a particularly strong or interesting feeling comes at her.)

“She doesn’t even know how to begin to tell him,” Deanna says, eyes closed. “She wants to, though. Isn’t that sweet?”

She leans forward, and they kiss, slow and gentle. “How do you think he’d take that?” Will asks. He tries to put himself in Wesley’s shoes for a moment. The boy had always been alright enough with his mother’s relationships before - even encouraged them. He’d always been so excited to learn but Will remembers how in tune he was with the woman who raised him. It was something unique, almost magical-seeming to him, because he’d never really known the same feeling.

“There would be plenty of feelings to take into account,” Deanna shrugs. She shifts a little to snuggle into his chest. “And you know how much you change at the Academy. I don’t think he’d hate it, you know. But there would be a lot of questions. And a lot of reexamination of the past.”

_ A long way off, though _ , Will figures.

Deanna pulls back and meets his eyes.  _ Or closer than we think _ .

_ Like telling your mother? _

Deanna laughs in his head, just in his head. She’s still a little sleepy.  _ Now that’s definitely a thought for another day _ . She holds him a little closer then, in her arms and in her mind.  _ How much time do we have until we have to get out of bed? _

_ Probably until the end of the call? _

Deanna makes a satisfied noise and snuggles into him again. Neither of them are sure how much time passes before Beverly comes back into the room.

“You’re probably not asleep, but just in case, I replicated your uniforms for you,” Beverly says, coming back into the room. They look up at her.

“Thanks, Bev,” Will says. They pull apart, and he smiles a little at Deanna’s mental protest to the loss of his warmth as they reach for their uniforms.

“How’s Wesley?” Deanna asks.

“He’ll come for a visit soon,” Beverly smiles. “He’s doing well - or at least he says so.” She’s already dressed and sits down on the edge of the bed. “You know that you never know. I was thinking about putting in for shore leave myself to go see him, even if it’s for a little. He’s busy, you know, and we’re elbow-deep in this Klingon conflict right now, but perhaps after.”

“Home’s a nice place,” Will says, then stops. “I mean, I guess home for you is somewhere else.”

Deanna slides off the bed to better reach the zipper of lavender jumpsuit. “It’s still a lovely place to visit.”

The call with Wesley means that Beverly’s skipped her usual breakfast with Captain Picard, so she replicates breakfast for the three of them. Either consciously or subconsciously she makes them what Deanna reminds Will is Wesley’s favorite - grilled cheese with eggs seasoned with Ferengi spices. Beverly herself takes coffee and a croissant.

They eat together in comfortable silence, until Will notices Deanna looking at Beverly from under her eyelashes.

Beverly laughs. “Itchy?”

Deanna shrugs. “You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t feeling so.”

“I’m just thinking about last night.”

Will chuckles. “Uh oh.”

“No, I mean--about you two. I mean, I understand that you two are--you two. And we’re--us. But I don’t know. Sometimes it’s just two of us hanging out.”

“Joy of serving on a starship,” quips Will. “Someone’s always got to work overtime.”

“Joy of being  _ in command _ on a starship,” Deanna says, and Will glares at her mentally, because for a moment, he’s got two women flashing very hungry looks around the table, and he knows he's not the only one flashing back to last night.  


Beverly blushes. “I mean, when’s the last time you two were alone together?”

He looks at Deanna. Deanna looks at him.

“I guess it’s been a while,” he says.

* * *

Beverly joins Alyssa and Selar for lunch, and Selar raises one eyebrow.

“Nice of you to join us, Doctor,” Alyssa says. It’s casual enough but also a question - why isn’t she sitting with Deanna and Will on the other side of the room?

“It kind of makes you want to have some headspace, doesn’t it - this Klingon conflict?” Beverly asks, deftly ignoring Ximena Georgiou’s curious stare from a table of junior officers. When had they all started eating lunch at the same time?

Selar sips her tea. “I suppose it does.”

“The good kind of headspace?” Alyssa asks.

“In this case, I think so,” Beverly answers, then transitions smoothly. “You know, Wesley might come visit soon.”

* * *

“It’s just because we haven’t had the time, right?” Will asks Deanna. “It’s not like we’re avoiding being alone.” He pauses. “Right?”

Deanna looks thoughtful. “I think we’ve just been too busy, honestly.”

“That can’t always be the excuse, though.”

Deanna tilts her head sideways. “It’s a valid excuse.”

He takes her hand across the table. “I know we’re in the middle of something right now, but I want to make time.”

Deanna smiles. “Alright, if we both get off shift at the same time today?”

He just squeezes her hand.

* * *

They do make it off shift at a decent hour, but when Deanna walks into her room, Will’s already lying on the bed, naked and dozing. He opens one eye when she leans against the doorframe, amused.

“Hi, Imzadi.”

His overexertion - on several fronts - is like walking into a wall. “That hard of a day, huh?”

“This Klingon situation is a nightmare, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.” He opens his arm into the space beside him. “Yours couldn’t have been so easy either.”

Deanna enters the room, kicks off her shoes, and falls onto the bed. “It wasn’t.”

“I was going to change, and then I thought I needed to relax a little. And then half an hour had passed.”

Deanna’s still wearing her clothes. She can’t find it in her to want to get undressed, though. She curls up beside him. “You’ve been called to the bridge without clothes on before. I have every confidence that you’d be able to get dressed in time.”

Will wraps his arms around her. “We were tired the last time we were in bed together too, just the two of us.”

“The year has been long,” Deanna agrees. She reaches up with one hand to undo her hair, and Will’s hand joins hers. They’ve long perfected the art of acting like two halves of a whole. They set the woven piece aside and kiss, tender but short; they’re equally tired.

Will nods back toward the bed.  _ You don’t mind? _ Deanna shakes her head and tries not to laugh as he performs the delicate art of trying to shimmy under the covers while putting in the least amount of work possible. “Would you want to try again?”

_ Betazed?  _ Deanna rolls out of the way so he can pull the covers down far enough for her to slide under as well.

_ Anywhere we won’t be interrupted by - anything _ . Deanna laughs and snuggles into him, only for him to nudge her gently sideways so he can undo her zipper. “You know you always take this thing off first thing when you get to your quarters.”

“Sure, but that’s when I know I’m alone.” She giggles again, freeing her arms from her outfit, then each leg. It’s ridiculous, doing all of this horizontal, but it’s quality time, and that’s all they really wanted from each other - Beverly included.  _ We’ll bring her? _

_ If she wants to come _ . “If she’s not trying to set us up.”

Deanna discards her clothes onto the floor - she’ll deal with it later - and snuggles back into him again. “You know what she meant to do.”

“Take care of everyone.”  _ Sounds like someone else I know. _ He weaves his foot between her warmer ones, and she giggles.

_ Oh, please.  _ “You know the feeling that woke me up this morning? It was your response to Wesley. You care for him a lot.”

“We all do.”

“You want to take care of your crew. He was your crew. But he’s also family.”  _ And I’m family. And Beverly’s family. _ “I’m just saying - it woke me up.”

She doesn’t push any more, because she’s feeling him start to slip over into sleep.  _ Can we sleep together? _

Deanna smiles, shifts so that her forehead’s touching his, and slides into his mind. She spreads out and makes herself at home, not moving anything but finding a place to make herself comfortable.  _ Always _ .

Here, he’s so much louder. It’s like her own voice speaking to her in her thoughts.  _ Do you think we can show her this? How we can do this? _

_ I want to show her so many things _ , Deanna says honestly.  _ In time, Imzadi _ .

And there he is again - slipping off into sleep, and then--

_ Yes, Imzadi? _

_ Is it lame that this is our date? _

She reaches out - a mental caress.  _ I don’t think so _ .

_ Okay, good, because I’ve missed this _ .

Another caress.  _ Sleep, Imzadi _ .

And they do.


End file.
